Persons Unknown
Persons Unknown
Stephanie Whittaker (Missing Person)
Stephanie Whittaker was a happily married mother of three who had everything to live for. On the evening of March 23rd 1990 the 34 year old was due to meet friends for a drink in the centre of Newport, South Wales. Stephanie left her house at 8.25pm to walk the short five minute journey into town but she never arrived. Despite a couple of unconfirmed sightings over the next 24 hours Stephanie has not been heard of since. All her knew her agreed, that Stephanie would not have left her family of her own accord and Gwent police have said the disappearance is highly suspicious.
Sources for the episode can be found here
*In the episode I give the date of an interview Tony Whittaker did with the Wales on Sunday as July 10th 1990. It was June 10th 1990)
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Stephanie Whittaker
I am away camping this week but I still wanted to release an episode, albeit one that is slightly shorter than normal. That is not from lack of research, rest assured I have exhausted every source I could find. It is a case I have been drawn to because it is local to me and yet, except for family members, seems to have been largely forgotten about. Next to nothing has been written about Stephanie Whittaker in the last thirty years; her name rarely features in lists of missing persons cases and her story is seldom mentioned as a possible unsolved murder. There are many perplexing elements to this mystery and DI Alan Watkins who played a lead role in the investigation called it one of the most puzzling cases he had ever dealt with.
Newport is a city situated near the Bristol Channel, a strip of water separating South Wales and the west of England. It is located approximately 12 miles/20 km northeast of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. At the time of the events I am about to narrate Newport was still classified as a town, only achieving city status in 2002 to mark Queen Elizabeth the Second’s Golden Jubilee.
34 year old Stephanie Rose Whittaker, known as “Stevie” or “Steve” by friends and family. Stephanie was married to Tony, 37, a housing association manager. By the spring of 1990 the couple had been married fifteen years and were raising three children together. Two boys and a girl, aged 12, 9 and just 18 months. The family lived on Llanthewy Road, to the west of Newport town centre.
As a young woman Stephanie had graduated from Bristol University with a psychology degree before working for Gwent health authority in a psychiatric hospital. Before the birth of her third child, Stephanie had been working as a home advisor for people with mental disabilities. She had also recently completed a course in counselling and communication at the Allt-yr-Yn college site in Newport. When her youngest son was born she gave up work as she wanted to be there for him and didn't want to miss out on his early years.
The South Wales Echo described Stephanie as a loving and well-loved person. Friends she met on her counselling course, light heartedly referred to her as “earth mother”, because of her unwavering dedication to her three children. This steadfast commitment to her children even saw Stephanie enjoy making them clothes. The Wales on Sunday added that Stephanie had a down-to-earth stable personality, though she was someone who expressed how she felt. Stephanie was someone who did not hide her feelings away but wore them on her sleeve. Her husband Tony described Stephanie in an interview with the later newspaper as “fiercely honest”. By all accounts and reports the couple had a good relationship. Friends and family indicated that Stephanie was happy in her marriage.
As Easter 1990 was approaching the Whittakers were looking forward to going away on holiday to West Wales during the school break. For now, though, their usual, bustling weekly routine was in full swing.
Friday March 23rd 1990 had been a normal day for the busy mum. In fact the week as a whole had been full-on. Just the day before both parents had organised a party at a local pizza restaurant to celebrate their eldest son's 12th birthday. However, Friday evenings were Stephanie’s opportunity to kick back and relax. It was a regular occurrence for her to go out with friends at the end of the working week.
That evening Stephanie made arrangements to meet her friends at 8.30pm outside the St John’s Ambulance hall in Caxton Place, in the centre of Newport. A Spiritualist church met there on Friday evenings and Stephanie would sometimes attend meetings with friends before going for one or two drinks. In terms of her attendance at the spiritual church, Tony later told newspapers that it was just something Stephanie was interested in, intimating that she did not take it too seriously.
From my research it's unclear whether she was due to attend a meeting that evening and then go out for drinks, or just go out for drinks. The Western Daily Press did report on March 31st 1990 that Stephanie was going with friends to a prayer meeting at the spiritualist church.
As Stephanie was rushing around the house getting ready to go out she paused to telephone her friend to say she was running a bit late. This was long before mobile phones, so Stephanie called her friend’s landline. The friend's husband answered the phone and told Stephanie that, as it happened, his wife had already left for the rendezvous point.
At around 8.25pm, just as she was about to exit the house, Stephanie called to her husband, “I’m off now, see you later.” She then left the house in Llanthewy Road and headed on foot to Caxton Place in Newport town centre. She was wearing a blue and white pin striped shirt, navy-blue corduroy trousers, a blue ¾ length navy blue waxed jacket by the brand Barbour (they were very fashionable at the time) and black ankle boots.
The route, which meandered downhill, was well lit and busy, especially on a Friday evening. Stephanie would have headed down Llanthewy Road towards the Civic centre before taking a right towards Caxton Place. It should have taken under ten minutes to walk.
Stephanie never met up with her friends that night. Her husband Tony was at home oblivious to this fact. Hours passed.
It wasn't unusual for Stephanie to go to a friend's house for a coffee after an evening in the pub. So as time ticked on Tony assumed that this was what had delayed Stephanie’s return. At midnight he retired for the night, concerned that his wife had not arrived home but at a loss as to what to do.
At 3am Tony woke up and to his consternation realised that Stephanie was not lying in the bed next to him. She had failed to return from her evening excursion. He paced around the house debating what to do. In all the years they had been married nothing like this had ever happened before.
At 5am Tony telephoned one of the friends Stephanie had been due to go out with that evening. They told him Stephanie had not turned up at the expected time and their group had not seen her all evening. The friends assumed that something had cropped up at the last minute which had forced Stephanie to change her plans. Again, this was long before mobile phones so they couldn't send her a quick message to ask where she was. After receiving this gut-wrenching news Tony contacted the police to report his wife missing.
Persons Unknown is a true crime podcast dedicated to unsolved murders and missing persons cases from all over the world.
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Over the next week Stephanie's husband Tony made several appeals through local media for his wife to make contact or for members of the public to come forward with any pertinent information. Stephanie was described as 5ft or 152cm,with a medium build and fair complexion. She had blue eyes with shoulder length hair. In the photographs I've seen it is blond in colour.
Police also appealed to Stephanie directly promising she could speak with them in confidence. They just needed to be informed she was safe. Husband Tony reiterated this sentiment saying he just wanted to know she was ok. However Gwent police were disappointed by the relatively poor response by the public to these pleas. In the first seven days after Stephanie went missing, the incident room set up at Newport central police station received less than thirty phone calls. This was a source of concern for Detective Superintendent Wilf Hill who at that stage was in command of the search for Stephanie. He believed the disappearance was highly suspicious. The local area was searched thoroughly, including the river Usk which runs through the centre of Newport, but with no results. Stephanie had just vanished, seemingly without a trace.
Police inquiries with family and friends left no indication that anything had been at odds in her life. Stephanie had no history of depression or any mental illness. Not long before her disappearance the Wales on Sunday reported that Stephanie had told her mother, “I’ve never been so happy”.
A couple who were neighbours of Stephanie told the Western Daily Press how worried they were for her and said they didn't want to dwell on some of the awful possibilities. They added that Stephanie lived for her kids and was always playing with her youngest son in the garden. Indeed all who knew Stephanie said she would never choose to leave her family of her own volition. Everyone attested to the fact that she loved her children and that love was her motivation for everything she did.
With all this in mind police did initially think Stephanie had been abducted. In an attempt to find potential witnesses and to help jog people's memories a reconstruction was held of Stephanie's last known movements. Police civilian clerk Helen Cook played the role of Stephanie and police officers lined the route and spoke to people along the way. They were keen to trace anyone who travelled the route on Friday evening. Even if people had not seen anything, police urged them to come forward. Their information would still be useful in trying to piece together what had happened along the relatively small stretch of road.
Shortly after Stephanie went missing a handbag was found on a pavement close to a pub on Caxton Place. It contained makeup and was first thought to belong to Stephanie. This was soon proved to be a false assumption. Tony confirmed that his wife had left the house without her handbag. She had also not taken her bank cards or any cash, apart from a little loose change, estimated to have been no more than two to three pounds. It was also confirmed Stepahnie took no extra clothing and all her personal documents, including her passport, were found in the house.
This evidence suggested that Stephanie’s disappearance had not been premeditated. Having said all this, police enquiries failed to produce any sightings of an abduction. The route she would have walked had been very busy that evening but no one had seen anything untoward. Whatever had happened to Stephanie or whatever Stephanie had done had not drawn any attention from passers by.
After the publicity concerning the reconstruction of Stephanie’s last moments, a report came into police of a woman who was seen in the area on Friday evening. The woman was said to have been visibly upset and in tears. The witness statement was made by a couple who were members of the Salvation Army. They saw a woman sitting alone on a bench in Westgate Square. This is a 5 minute walk east of Caxton Place where Stephanie was due to meet her friends. The witnesses said the woman was visibly distressed and clocked the sighting at 9.30pm, a little over an hour after Stephanie was last seen.
A sighting also came in from a woman who knew Stephanie, who said she had seen her in Newport on Saturday March 24th. That is the day after she went missing. While these sightings could not be confirmed the police said they were more positive about the latter sighting on Saturday afternoon.
Around a fortnight after Stephanie vanished it was reported in the South Wales Echo that there were two possible sightings of her in the city of Hereford. Hereford is in the West of England and lies just 16 miles/20 km from the Wales border and just over an hour's drive north of Newport. These were checked out by police but nothing came of them.
It’s an understatement to say it was a very difficult time for Tony and the children. Tony told Wales on Sunday in June 1990 (in podcast I say July 1990) that the first 9 weeks were the worst of his life. Four months on he was still finding it incredibly difficult to deal with but was doing his best to keep it together for the sake of the children. They had found the whole situation extremely upsetting and extended family members and friends were doing the best they could to support and comfort them. Tony hired a nanny to help with the children as he had to return to work to provide for the family.
As to any explanation for his wife’s vanishing, he continued to be perplexed. Stephanie wasn't under any particular stress or strain beyond normal day to day stuff. In an interview with the South Wales Echo on June 16th 1990 Tony said if she left willingly for good he could no longer believe in anything. In another interview with the Wales on Sunday on June 10th 1990 (In podcast I mistakenly say JULY 10th) Tony was adamant that if his wife had been involved in what he called “another emotional relationship” she would have told him about it. He didn't believe Stephanie had got mixed up with drugs or anything like that as she always put her children first in everything she did. This left the frightening thought that she had been taken against her will. Nevertheless in this regard there continued to be a lack of proof . Detective Alan Watkins reiterated the police’s view that there was no evidence of an abduction, though shortly after this police did say they were keeping an open mind concerning the involvement of another person or persons.
Two alternative explanations were put forward.
Diana Lamplugh established the Suzy Lamplugh Trust after her 25 year old daughter, Suzy, vanished on July 28th 1987. Suzy was an estate agent and was last seen walking away from a house with a man, known only as “Mr Kipper” whom she had arranged to show around the property. Suzy has never been seen since and is presumed to have been murdered. Diana Lamplugh commented on Stephanie's case, describing her disappearance as odd and wondering if she could have had a “burnout” and experienced a blackout. This could have left Stephanie in a fugue state unable to remember details about her identity. This was a possibility that Stephanie’s husband Tony had also considered.
Another theory that was explored by investigators at the time was whether Stephanie had come under the influence of a cult. This idea surfaced because of Stephanie’s connection with the spiritualist church, though this angle was swiftly dismissed by police.
In the face of different theories and speculation Detective Chief Inspector William Glyn, who was leading the inquiry, took the step to say police were working under the assumption that Stephanie was still alive. However, they believed she was no longer in Wales. With so much publicity within Wales DCI Glyn was convinced Stephnaie would have made contact with her family.
Eerily, over the previous decade or so there were several local examples of women who disappeared from the Newport area, with some returning many years later.
35 year old Christine Ann Lane disappeared in 1985 from Gaer in the south west of Newport. She turned up again four years later in London asking for a divorce from her husband.
Margaret Salter of Queen Street, Newport, had disappeared on two previous occasions for long periods of time before vanishing again in June 1988. This time she left notes behind for her two children. I haven't been able to discover if Margaret was ever traced after going missing on this third occasion.
There was also the case of 40 year old Ann Forbes who disappeared from Newport in 1978. She went by several other names including Clara or Claire Forbes, Mrs Hinchcliffe, Mrs Curtis and Mrs Harbin. In 1990 Ann was still missing and I can't confirm whether she was ever found.
A significant difference between these women and Stephanie Whittacker was that they all had a history of mental illness or relationship issues. This was not the case with Stephanie and she did not fit the pattern in the slightest.
September 1990 saw newspapers begin to reference Stephanie's disappearance alongside two other more recent cases of missing women from Wales. The first was a case I have covered previously on this podcast. and happened just a few months after Stephanie went missing. On Saturday June 16th 1990 in Llangollen, North Wales, 52 year old antiques dealer Trevaline Evans put a sign on the shop door which read “back in 2 minutes”. She popped across to a local market stall and purchased some fruit for her lunch. Around an hour and a half later a witness saw Trevaline walking near her home, a short distance from the shop. There have been no confirmed sightings of Trevaline since then.
The other case concerns a 44 year old woman, Elizabeth Iris Evans, who went missing on Friday September 7th 1990. Elizabeth was last seen leaving the solicitor’s office where she worked near Jail Hill in Carmarthen, West Wales. As she left for lunch she told colleagues that she was going to visit a friend in a nearby estate and planned to return to the office later that day. Elizabeth did not go back and inquiries proved that she did not visit the friend. It was not a prearranged meeting and the friend knew nothing about it.
Elizabeth was described as 5ft or 152cm, with short light brown/greying hair. She was last seen wearing a ¾ length anorak, turquoise blouse, black pleated skirt, black shoes and carrying a black plastic bag.
I can find very little about this incident and I have been unable to uncover whether Elizabeth is still classed as a missing person. I really hope she was found safe and well.
As the first anniversary of Stephanie’s disappearance was approaching in March 1991, Tony appeared on the popular weekday morning television show “Kilroy” to talk about his missing wife. As soon as the segment aired someone called in to report a sighting of Stephanie in a London pub. While this gave Tony hope it was always going to be a long shot. Officers from Scotland Yard did investigate the tip but nothing came of it.
At this juncture Gwent police stated they had not given up on getting to the bottom of the matter. They continued to make requests for Stephonie to get in touch. As an adult police accepted that she had the right to do what she wanted but asked her to let them know she was safe. Through the media they assured Stephanie that she would not be required to give away her whereabouts or forced to return.
A few months later DCI William Glyn was rather more downbeat in his assessment. He said now he was sure Stephanie was dead, though he hoped he would be proven wrong. In truth there were no developments or news either way concerning what had happened to Stephanie.
Almost four years later the case was highlighted on BBC TV’s “Crimewatch”. The feature was originally supposed to air in December 1993 but was pulled at the last minute as producers said there was insufficient time to do the case justice. It was eventually broadcast on January 20th 1994. Stephanie's case was highlighted after campaigners lobbied the show to cover more missing persons cases. In the past they had really only been featured when there was good evidence that a murder had been committed. They were now expanding the “Crimewatch” portfolio to take on cases where murder was suspected, even if there was a lack of hard evidence for this.
The strange thing is that I remember the day after this particular episode was aired as people in school were talking about another case it featured. I may cover that story in a later episode of Persons Unknown.
In the “Crimewatch” episode Stephanie's story was told very briefly, in just a matter of minutes, with the bare facts of the case highlighted. Police hoped Stephanie or someone who recognised her would get in contact with them, though they added they did fear the worst. Implying they thought Stephanie was deceased. To coincide with the “Crimewatch” episode DCI Glyn made numerous appeals in the media. Interestingly he said there may be friends of Stephanie who believe she left voluntarily and were keeping information back. He added they were treating Stephanie’s disappearance as “extremely suspicious” and were very concerned for her welfare.
I’m afraid that is really where the trail ends and Stapehanie’s story has been seldom mentioned since then. On the website “What do they know” which facilitates freedom of information requests I came across an entry concerning Stephanie Whittacker from March 2024. A freedom of information request was made by an individual to Gwent police asking if Stephanie Whittaker was still regarded as a missing person and if not, whether she was found alive. At the end of April the reply came that Stephanie was still regarded as a missing person.
I also noticed that Stephaine is listed on the website unsolved murders .co.uk. I can find no official suspects or persons of interest in the case.
What happened to Stehpanie on the short walk from her home into Newport town centre remains a mystery. Did she meet someone known to her, or get into a passing car? Did she fall victim to a person like Christopher Halliwell? I’ve covered Haliwell as a suspect in quite a few of the cases I've covered in previous episodes so I will not go into him now. Suffice to say the convicted murder is often connected to missing or unsolved murdered women in the 1990s. In this instance I've not read anything that has linked him to this case.
There are also the sightings to consider of Stephaine later that night and the following afternoon, but just can’t be sure it was her. What we do know is Stephanie has never attempted to contact her family since March 23rd 1990 and there is no record that she has signed on for any state benefits.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Stehaine Whittaker you can call Crime stoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. If you have been affected by someone you know going missing or if you yourself are thinking of going missing you can call or text the UK charity Missing people for support on 116 000.
Sources
